1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a multi-level management system including a center monitoring apparatus and local monitoring apparatuses which monitor and control monitored apparatuses in a large-scale communication system comprised of a plurality of communication apparatuses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to widespread use of standardized SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) communication networks, network configurations have been rapidly developing in terms of their size and diversity, being connected to various types of communication apparatuses in addition to conventional PDH (plesiochronous digital hierarchy) communication apparatuses.
To keep pace with this development, monitoring apparatuses for administering and controlling communication apparatuses in a system need to be equipped with system functions that make it possible to attend to central control of the large-scale communication system. It is no longer sufficient to be able to monitor and control communication apparatuses only in a confined area.
Also, an effort has been directed to a study on a multi-level management system in consideration of performance limitations of a single control apparatus as well as with an aim of attaining expandability. Here, the multi-level management system includes a central monitoring apparatus for processing summary information and local monitoring apparatuses for controlling communication apparatuses within a given area. In such a multi-level management system, the center monitoring apparatus is expected not only to manage and control summary information but also to manage and control detailed information of each communication apparatuses in each area.
The reason why there is such a demand is that an administrator operating the central monitoring apparatus needs to be promptly and reliably informed of detailed information on current situations of each area if the situations are of an urgent nature. When there is failure that cannot be corrected by a local administer operating on a local monitoring apparatus, or when there is a need for collaborative work between local administrators, the central administrator needs to provide prompt support. The central administrator needs to be prepared and ready to provide support to an area where a failure occurred, and such preparation must be arranged before there is an actual request from a local administrator. To this end, the central monitoring apparatus needs to be able to collect detailed information on status changes of communication apparatuses in much the same manner as the local monitoring apparatus can.
FIG. 29 is an illustrative drawing showing a configuration of a multi-level management system.
Communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm are installed in various areas over a wide region (such as a nationwide region), and are to be monitored by monitoring apparatuses. The communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm detect status changes of various monitoring items, and transmit information on the status changes as an event message to local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n over a network 5. When receiving instructions from the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n, the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm attend to various control processing.
The local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n monitor the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm situated in their respective monitoring areas. The local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n display and update respective local monitor screens 211 through 21n that show monitored statuses of the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm. Further, the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n transmit data of the local monitor screens 211 through 21n to a central monitoring apparatus 1 over a network 4. Further, the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n transmit summary information to the central monitoring apparatus 1 over the network 4 where the summary information is a summary of status changes of the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm. The central monitoring apparatus 1 attends to central monitoring of all the areas. The central monitoring apparatus 1 displays and updates a central monitor screen 11A that shows monitored statuses of all the area in response to the summary information sent from the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n.
Further, the central monitoring apparatus 1 displays local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn which are the same as the local monitor screens 211 through 21n generated by the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n. Here, the displaying of the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn is performed by utilizing a screen display function of the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n.
To implement such a multi-level management system as described above, a study has been conducted on use of a browser-based client-sever system. Here, a client is the central monitoring apparatus 1, and servers are the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n.
A multi-level management system implemented in such a manner requires monitoring and controlling functions for the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm to be provided only in the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n that act as servers, and it is all that is required of the monitoring and controlling functions. Such a configuration means reduced burden on system developments, achieving desirable efficiency.
By the same token, there is a system in which the monitoring and controlling functions for the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm are provided only in the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n, and display operation functions are provided for each user by use of multi-window display software such as X-windows. In this system, the central monitoring apparatus 1 acting as a user makes a remote access to the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n.
When the central monitoring apparatus 1 and the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n attend to monitoring and controlling of the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm, however, there is a need to insure separate and independent operations between the central monitoring apparatus 1 and the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n. Such care must be taken when operations for confirming status changes, operations for displaying operation results, etc., are performed.
When the central monitoring apparatus 1 displays the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn, information shown on the screen is the image information stored in the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n. When operations for confirming status changes are made on the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1, information about these operations is transmitted to the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n via the network 4, so that the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n update the local monitor screens 211 through 21n accordingly. The local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n then send data of the updated local monitor screens 211 through 21n to the central monitoring apparatus 1, allowing the central monitoring apparatus 1 to update the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn.
In this configuration, the local monitor screens 211 through 21n of the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n are updated even through operators of the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n did not confirm the status changes by their confirmation operations.
By the same token, when operators of the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n operate the apparatuses to confirm status changes on the local monitor screens 211 through 21n, these confirmation operations end up being reflected by the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1. Namely, the display screens of the central monitoring apparatus 1 are affected by operations made not by the operator of the central monitoring apparatus 1, creating inconsistency between operation and display.
Further, the central monitor screen 11A of the central monitoring apparatus 1 does not reflect confirmation operations made at the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n. This results in inconsistency between the central monitor screen 11A and the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn.
Accordingly, there is a need for a multi-level management system which allows a monitor screen to reflect an operator operation only if the operation is made at a monitoring apparatus having the very same monitor screen, and keeps consistency of displayed information between the central monitor screen 11A and the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1.
Moreover, when an administrator displays a screen-showing various items of status changes, and attends to a confirmation operation, all the items of the displayed status changes are treated as being confirmed. This is the case even when the items are managed by numbers assigned thereto. This presents a problem in that information cannot be confirmed on an item-wise basis. Accordingly, there is a need for a multi-level management system which allows an operator (administrator) to attend to item-wise confirmation.
Further, if the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n try to display all the detailed information that are received from the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm, the size of the information to be displayed is prohibitively large. To cope with this, display restrictions may be placed on the types of information items, so that only selected items are displayed. In this case, the display restrictions set by the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n affect what is displayed on the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1. Namely, information items displayed on the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1 is subjected to the same display restriction.
On the other hand, display restrictions set by the central monitoring apparatus 1 do not affect data of the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn that the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n send to the central monitoring apparatus 1. This results in an inconsistency between the central monitor screen 11A and the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1.
Accordingly, there is a need for a multi-level management system which allows a screen of a monitoring apparatus to reflect display restrictions only if the display restrictions are set in this monitoring apparatus, and allows information items selected by an administrator to be displayed while keeping consistency between the central monitor screen 11A and the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn of the central monitoring apparatus 1.
Further, when an operator of the central monitoring apparatus 1 operates on the local monitor screens 11B1 through 11Bn to control the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n or the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm, the central monitoring apparatus 1 will have the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n attend to the requested control processing. In this case, however, history of the operation is recorded in the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n, but is not recorded in the central monitoring apparatus 1. This presents a problem that a control operation made at the central monitoring apparatus 1 cannot be later checked.
Accordingly, there is a need for a multi-level management apparatus which allows the central monitoring apparatus 1 to record history of operation even when the operation made at the central monitoring apparatus 1 is directed to control of the local monitoring apparatuses 21 through 2n or the communication apparatuses 311 through 3nm.